CBR News has learned that Marvel Comics has dismissed SVP of Integrated Sales and Marketing, Publishing and Digital Media John Dokes today – a fact corroborated by a report on Heidi MacDonald's The Beat. At present, it is unclear whether the dismissal is a cost-cutting layoff or for some other reason. CBR had not received a response from Marvel on the move by press time. Marvel offered no comment on this story.

Dokes is a longtime Marvel staffer with two stints on the company's payroll, the most recent beginning in 2004. As SVP of the Market and Digital initiatives for the publisher, he was active in launch programs such as Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited service, promotional trailers and videos for events and motion comics and other functions of Marvel's website and promotional outreaches. However, he is perhaps best known to convention-going fans as the man who would lead excitable giveaways on Sunday afternoon's from Marvel's booth where he would pump up the crowd and toss out comics, toys, t-shirts and more to the fans who cheered the loudest.